


Not Ideal but Workable

by calmena



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, M/M, Not Canon Compliant
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-02
Updated: 2019-06-02
Packaged: 2020-04-06 16:09:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,782
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19066057
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/calmena/pseuds/calmena
Summary: Tony and Bucky go on a date. It goes about as wrong as it can, to the surprise of exactly nobody.They make it work, anyway.Or: The one where Tony and Bucky's date is interrupted by wanna-be villains, Tony spends most of the fight on Bucky's back and they're still both BAMFs.





	Not Ideal but Workable

**Author's Note:**

  * For [marsmaywander](https://archiveofourown.org/users/marsmaywander/gifts).



It was only his luck, really, Tony thought, clinging to Bucky's shoulders and ignoring the way the muscles moved under his fingers (or trying to ignore it—okay, he really didn't ignore it at all, but Bucky didn't seem to mind Tony being a bit more grabby than strictly necessary, so who cared). To think he'd been hoping for a nice walk, some pleasant conversation, a perfectly ordinary date. Tesla knew they got enough excitement while fighting villains on a regular basis and didn't need it when they were trying to start _something_ between the two of them.

So of course Tony had gotten a little distracted by Bucky's... everything when he'd bent over to pick up a frisbee that had landed close to where they'd been walking and managed to trip over his own feet. In trying to catch himself, he'd managed to twist an ankle and almost ended up face down on the floor to boot.

At first, he'd tried to tell Bucky that it was all good, it didn't hurt. He wasn't going to be a bother, and he certainly wasn't going to destroy this date by whining about his ankle hurting when he'd managed to fight with worse injuries in the past. They'd managed to get a few yards further, following the pathways through the park, with Tony doing his best to ignore the painful stabs he felt with every step he took, trying to laugh through the pain when Bucky joked about something.

In the end, Bucky had stopped both speaking and walking in the middle of a sentence, watching Tony with a long, searching look before he shook his head.

Tony's heart had fallen, certain that he would be told that Bucky didn't think this was going to work after all, that this date had been a mistake, that they would be better off _never talking to each other again_ —

His thoughts had screeched to a sudden halt when Bucky gotten down on one knee in front of him, mind going a mile a minute, " _It's way too soon for a proposal, what's he doing, his shoes aren't untied_ " in the second it took for him to turn his back towards Tony. Even so, just the amount of trust involved in that move, from someone who'd been used and abused by Hydra for decades and been brainwashed to a truly horrifying extent, took his breath away. Then Bucky had looked back at him and raised an eyebrow.

And that was how Tony ended up being given a piggy-back ride back to the tower, cutting through the trees because apparently, that was faster than following the path.

Ignoring the fact that his ankle still hurt with every step Bucky took—though, admittedly, much less pain than he'd felt when he'd been walking, himself—Tony was hopeful that maybe this date wouldn't be the complete disaster he'd been afraid it would end up as.

Which was exactly when what looked like a dart pinged off Bucky's metal arm, and then things happened very quickly all at once. As Bucky turned and raised an arm to deflect what turned out to be another dart, Tony's watch formed into a gauntlet and only a bare second later, a repulsor blast took out the first attacker who was running at them at the knees, sending him falling to the ground with a shout.

Bucky grunted a bit at the unexpected push-back but managed to catch himself before Tony could be so much as jostled in his place on Bucky's back. The next time Tony set off a repulsor blast, Bucky was prepared and didn't so much as flinch, which Tony had to admit was very impressive and _very_ attractive.

In exactly that moment, as if in response to his wandering attention, another shot managed to just barely glance off Tony's upper arm. He hissed in surprise more than in pain, even as he twisted around and repulsored a guy in the stomach in the same movement. Bucky cursed.  


And then they were suddenly moving.

At first, Bucky obviously tried to do so without jostling Tony, or as much as it was possible, anyway. They weren't really making headway though, it became clear quickly. The shots followed at the same pace as they managed to move.  


They wouldn't make it back to the tower at this rate, Tony decided and leaned down to speak into Bucky's ear, coincidentally dodging another bullet that way.

"Just let me down," he urged, swinging the foot that wasn't injured to make the point—mostly because when he tried to do that with his other leg, it just sent a dull, throbbing pain through his ankle that almost made him yelp. Tony was pretty sure that would have thoroughly undermined the statement he was trying to make.  


Bucky shook his head, that much Tony could see even as he was perched on his back. What wasn't visible, but very much audible, were the gritted teeth as he replied.

"No chance. We gotta move, we're sitting ducks where we are. You're staying where you are." Then, with a more joking tone, with as much levity as he could afford in this situation, he added, "It's not like you're heavy to me at all."

Tony gasped, then repulsor blasted someone in the face who had been trying to sneak closer to them as they spoke. He almost snorted at that, too. They should really know better than to expect the Winter Soldier and Iron Man would stop paying attention to their attackers just because they were _talking_. Besides, by this point, his patience had run out, too. So the face it was.

Pulling his phone from his back pocket with the hand that was not currently wielding the repulsor, because he much preferred all his parts where they were, Tony alerted JARVIS.

"Hey J, We're getting swarmed on our date," he started, only noticing after speaking that he possibly sounded a bit grumpy about it all. Well, Tony decided, if there was anyone who deserved to be grumpy right then it was him. His date with Bucky had been properly destroyed by this point. And here he'd been thinking his ankle was going to be the worst of it. "Do you maybe want to send the suit my way? Maybe whoever of the team is around in the tower, too. I don't think we need the whole group here, but just to make sure, in case they pull out gene modified rhinos or something."

Because that was a reasonable fear, and happened in the past. Sometimes, he listened to himself speak and couldn't believe this was his life.  


"Done, Sir," JARVIS responded only a second or two later. "Mister Barton and Mister Rogers will meet you soon."

"Oh great," Tony groaned before he could think about it, repulsoring someone with feeling, even as Bucky swung him around and punched out three people who had descended on them. "We'll never hear the end of this."

Bucky snickered, and Tony squeezed his upper thighs lightly in playful admonishment.

"No laughing, Mister. You'll be right there with me, don't forget that," he said, even as he ducked another bullet that went flying barely over his head, ignoring the painful jolts of the quick steps Bucky took and instead urging him to go faster.

"We'll just have to get them all down before Steve and Clint turn up then," Bucky said reasonably, and made a sudden turn towards the shots instead of away from them.

Tony blinked, startled, for just a moment, and their attackers must have felt the same way because, for a second, everything _stopped_. The shooting, the oncoming attackers, all of it.

By the time they'd come back to themselves—too slow, way longer than it had taken Tony to catch himself—Bucky was already taking cover behind a tree, keeping low to the ground, or as much as he could with Tony still on his back.  


The shots alone had apparently been enough for Bucky to estimate where the shooters themselves must be, because he nodded in a direction, then glanced over his shoulder at Tony with telling look.

It was enough for Tony to get his repulsor ready so that when Bucky rushed off, he was ready to shoot the startled woman in the face before she could so much as shout.

And that's the way they continued on. As it turned out, running towards the attackers instead of away worked incredibly well for them.

Really, Tony thought, glancing over his shoulder at where they'd left three unconscious people stacked on top of each other, they were a great team. Not even once so far had Tony needed to get off Bucky's back, and while his ankle still hurt, the adrenaline did its part to numb it down a little, so even the jolts of Bucky running didn't pain him so much anymore.

Bucky still took care to be as careful as possible, but Tony was relieved that the little injury wasn't going to hold them back more than it already did by making Bucky piggyback him around as they worked to dispatch their attackers.

At one more point, he'd hissed at Bucky to let him down, that it would be safe enough now and Bucky would get around easier if he did so. That had been straight up ignored, with barely even a shake of Bucky's head at the suggestion. Any other time, Tony might have been just a little annoyed at being dismissed so entirely, but the way Bucky managed to keep on punching out their attackers with only one hand, while the other held onto Tony and kept him hitched onto Bucky's back more than made up for the little perceived slight.

It was once they had managed to catch another guy as he was frantically looking around a tree trunk while his back was turned—those people had destroyed their date, they didn't deserve a fair fight—that it finally became quiet.

Both of them stood there for a few seconds, simply listening and keeping watch on their surroundings, just to make sure they weren't missing something. They were so vigilant, in fact, that they almost jumped out of their skins when a sudden shout came through the trees.

"Tony? Bucky? You still alive?"

Tony snorted, hiding his face in Bucky's hair, as Bucky himself groaned.

"Great," he muttered, "Steve still hasn't learned subtlety."

Tony snickered quietly, patting Bucky's shoulder. "There, there." And then louder, "You're late! We finished the party without you!"

Vaguely, they heard Clint let out a good-natured grumble at that. 

"I don't even want to know if that's a innuendo."

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you like it, marsmaywander. I... may have failed to create something you'd enjoy, and I'm very sorry, if so. By this point, I've edited this about five times and it's posting it or starting from the beginning, and there's just not enough time left for that. So I'm very sorry, and feel free to let me know if I hate it, I _will_ write you something else.
> 
> The suit stopped for Starbucks and got lost. I don't know how I managed to forget about it, I swear.


End file.
